Watermelon by the Half Ton

the perfect summer food

My ex-husband was a watermelon master. His family was from Mississippi, and they took this task seriously.¹ He chose one every Sunday, a big one, and cut it into cubes to keep in the fridge all week. If it was particularly good, he would call his mother to brag about how sweet it was. It is an emblem of our family, the perfect watermelon always in the fridge. When we split, I brought with me the secrets of choosing a great watermelon. I have been known to call him to brag about how good one is.

My children and grandchildren were here for Fourth of July. We went through five full-size watermelons in as many days, the kids popping into the fridge to serve themselves a bowl, the adults more moderately having some for breakfast, then some at mid-afternoon, a little more when the sun came pouring in from the west at early evening.

Watermelon is a superfood, especially in summer, when the water and potassium are sucked up by dehydrated bodies. It’s sweet and refreshing and low in calories. Most of the ones I bought this week came in at about $5 each, so a bargain, too.

I have made salads with it sometimes; spinach and watermelon is a great combination, and I had a fennel and watermelon recipe that I’ve lost. Also great.

But mainly, it’s so perfect on its own there’s no reason to make it into something else. How many things like that exist? Peaches, maybe, the perfect juicy ones you can sometimes find in mid-August. Palisade peaches in Colorado were what we waited for, but I haven’t found a type here yet.

After finishing the draft of my book (the day before my family arrived!) I am finally looking at a few weeks of lazy time. My granddaughters are here to hang out for two weeks of art, walking the beach, and this year, playing at the arcade my husband opened with a partner. That’s been a bigger hit than I expected.

I plan to read a ton (I mean, I always do, but there’s a social history of the English Raj that I’m dying to read), and play in my studio with the girls. We’re going to the redwoods overnight, and there’s a small aquarium in a nearby town. We will walk on the beach a lot, mostly in the evening to enjoy the dazzling sunsets. I hope we spot seals in the harbor.

Lazy days. Summer days. We’ll eat a lot more watermelon, and they’ll remember that when they have children, and grandchildren, this thread running through our summer lives.

Do you have tricks for choosing watermelon? Do you eat tons of it like we do?

1. Oh, wait: the perfect watermelon should be darker green, heavy for its size, with a brown vine end. It should have a yellow spot from where it rested on the ground, and “sugar marks,” crinkly brown lines on the outside, and of course, the thump should reverberate nicely.